Teaching the Holocaust

As a newer teacher I am sincerely committed to becoming a better teacher; however, I am equally committed to not becoming a burnt out teacher. Because of the latter, I sometimes lag on my planning and put my mental health first. Hey, a happy teacher is a better teacher right? For instance, after my mom passed away this past October, I mostly just went to school and was cranky and edgey and not the greatest teacher. I got by.

This term has started off great, especially in my 3 tenth grade sheltered English classes which are usually my HUGE challenges. We are studying Expository (informational) reading and writing so I decided I'd teach Night by Elie Wiesel. Night is a great book because it's short, it's serious and moving, it's a real story, and it deals with a subject that is important to me which translates well to my students.  Before reading a book about the Holocaust it is very important for students to understand some history and to comprehend that life was "normal" before the war. So often, the only thing kids learn about the Holocaust is the concentration camps and the death and the lethargic emaciated bodies they see in history books. This is NOT what I want to be the focus. Of course, it's significant, but so is before and after the war too. And so...This is what I did. Note: I adapted the two lessons from a workshop I attended about teaching the Holocaust.

Day One: I gathered 3 sets of photographs and printed them on overheads. I had baby photos of the 3 people and then photos of those people as adults.  I also created a handout with 5 photo analysis questions to guide the students.  As I placed each baby photo up, the students analyzed details such as: Is it a boy or girl? When was the photo taken? What clues tell the age? Is it candid or staged? Where might somebody see this photo displayed?

The students had fun with this. I was joyously suprised.  They had fun guessing the gender and trying to get me to tell them who the photos were. Many thought they were of me and my grandparents. Funny since the baby photos were from long ago.  One student wrote that one photo was from 1980 because it was in black and white! (that pic was of Ronald Reagan at 1 years old). Which leads me to the 2nd part.

After they saw all the baby pics, I revealed who each person was. First was President Reagan. Next was the infamous photo of JFK Jr. at 3 years old saluting his father's casket. The last photo shocked the students. They thought that baby was a girl, and cute and pudgy. It was actually Hitler.  They were blown away and interested. I had them and it was good!

I used this to introduce the topic because all the students can easily identify Hitler and they know enough about who he was to know he was evil. The focus of the discussion after revealing the photos was whether or not one can tell what a baby will become. It was about stereotypes and misconceptions; all issues that were part of the cause of the Holocaust.

Day Two: Using survivor testimonies to write 'Found Poems'.I  wanted to get into what life was like for people who experienced the Holocaust without giving a dull history lesson filled with confusing facts and figures. I used the book Images of the Holocaust as my resource. I copied 13 different short testimonies from survivors. Some were about life before the war, in the ghettos, the camps, liberation, and life after the war. I wanted the kids to see the stages of the war through the eyes of those who lived it.

I gave the kids an example by reading a testimony aloud. Then, I read a found poem that I got from the workshop I attended. A found poem is basically taking exact words and phrases from a text and with only those, writing a poem. It's a phenomenal exercise for comprehension, for creativity, and it's great for speaking because I will have the students present their poems aloud to the class.

After I handed the stories out, the students, in every class! were silent. Silent reading for minutes and minutes on end. It was a perfect happy teacher moment. Why didn't and administrator walk in :). The kids loved their testimonies. They even got up and used dictionaries in order to understand it!  WHOA BETTY!

Many students had already started their poems in class. This is going so well that I for sure will keep this lesson. I think I will have the kids show me their poem drafts tomorrow, I'll make any suggestions if a revision is needed and then we will write them very neatly and I'll have the students create borders or an illustration to go with their poems. These will be great for hanging student work up.

Anyway...this is far longer than I expected but I thought it was a worthy lesson worth sharing. This can surely be done with any level student, with any type of material.

If you read this far...thanks :)